Why You Shouldn’t Buy a Used POS System
When starting a new business, it is so easy in this day and age to open your laptop or phone and look for cheap, used equipment like a POS System on the likes of eBay, Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace.
Whilst it may seem like a great idea at the time for a fledgling entrepreneur to cut costs upon startup, there are several reasons why you shouldn’t buy a used POS System.
Four common problems with used POS systems
Outdated hardware
When you buy a used POS System, you’re likely to be buying a combination of old hardware and software in one package that doesn’t quite perform to the ability that a fast-paced business needs, and installing modern software on older kit will definitely slow down performance.
Old software with no support
A used POS System will likely come with old, outdated software that doesn’t have many of the functions or features that you need in order to run your business efficiently and profitably as you’ll be too tied up doing everything manually!
Older software without regular updates is also prone to more issues and downtime and with the additional risk of support services coming to an end as newer versions are released so a major issue could potentially bring your business to a halt.
Older POS Systems Software isn’t quite as smooth and can take a long time to train staff, get to grips with and update your products, time that you and your staff could be spending with customers.
Used POS systems don't scale
Choosing the right POS System for your business is an extremely important decision to make and when you’re looking at buying a standalone, used system, there’s not going to be scope for scalability as your business grows.
Not only will you not be able to choose specific features or integrations you want, but your customers may not have as much choice over how they choose to pay for your goods which is becoming increasingly important, with so many options available.
You’ll also have much more paperwork to think about if you’re operating multiple POS Systems over different parts of your business or different sites as they won’t sync, meaning more time in the office.
Older systems are difficult to tailor
With a used system that was designed with another business in mind, it may make it difficult to change certain seemingly basic functions, like a table layout for your restaurant or product categories for a retail business.
You also might not be able to factory reset and start from the beginning in order to bulk add your products to the system and will have to add each item individually which is a timely task.
Still think a used POS System is the way to go? Contact us today and let us convince you otherwise.